


At The Pendulum's Mercy

by Witchy1ness



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Dr. Owens called Hopper "Pop" and HOW did I miss that?!, F/M, Gen, emotional swearing, joyce pov, set during the season 1 finale, what happens when you re-watch ST while waiting for season 3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-02
Updated: 2019-07-02
Packaged: 2020-06-03 01:22:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,028
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19453441
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Witchy1ness/pseuds/Witchy1ness
Summary: The fourth time Will has a check-up at the Lab after being rescued from the Upside Down is the first time Hopper actually comes into the room with them, and it leads to a misunderstanding on Dr. Owens' part that Joyce isn't sure she wants to fix.





	At The Pendulum's Mercy

**Author's Note:**

> So re-watching Stranger Things spawned a couple plot bunnies. Hoping to finish and post the second one before the third season drops in like two days haha oops ^_^;
> 
> Stranger Things and all recognizable characters, settings, and related are the property of The Duffer Brothers and Netflix, I'm just borrowing them :)
> 
> Reviews and constructive criticisms welcome; flames will be ignored.

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Joyce had been reluctantly persuaded by Jonathan to get some fresh air when Hopper had pulled her aside and told her that not only were Will’s hospital bills covered, but so were future checkups. Her first reaction had been an overwhelming sense of financial relief; there had been a running bill adding up in the back of her mind ever since they’d loaded Will into the ambulance.

But when she had learned the _who_ and _where_ of the deal, she and Hopper had gotten into such a shouting match they didn't speak to each other for nearly two weeks.

But she'd capitulated, in the end; because really, what choice did she have?

There was no way she could take Will back to the hospital once the staff there had given him a clean bill of health. How would she ever be able to convince people who hadn’t experienced everything they had about the need for additional testing on an apparently healthy – if exhausted and under-nourished – child?

(Never mind that, as it turns out, she wouldn’t have been allowed to do so anyways.)

And so Joyce had eventually gritted her teeth and accepted the appointment information on a business card Hopper had handed to her. She’d angrily grabbed it from his hand, muttered a terse “Thank you,” and then pointedly turned to the next customer in line without another word. 

So it was a shock when she and Will had turned up at Hawkins Lab for that first appointment (Something it had taken a while to get, seeing as how it had had to completely re-staff. Which Joyce gets, but was still irritated about having to wait so long.) only to see Hopper waiting for them in the parking lot.

Still angry at the corner they’d been backed into she ignored him, something that grew increasingly harder to do as he wound up following them into the building.

When it seemed like he was going to follow them straight into the exam room, Joyce couldn't bite her tongue any longer. But the guilt she glimpsed in Hopper's blue eyes when she'd looked up at him in preparation to tell him off took her aback. She didn't know what there was for him to feel guilty about – he had believed her when everyone else thought she was just being crazy Joyce Byers again; hell, he'd helped save her boy - but its presence was unmistakable. 

She just sighed instead, stretched too thin to take on someone else’s problems, and continued into the room holding tight to Will’s hand. But Hopper had stopped at the threshold like he’d hit a wall, mumbled something about coffee, and disappeared. 

Joyce barely noticed, busy helping Will onto the examination table and then taking a seat on a stool her rear end would get intimately familiar with in the coming months as the nurse bustled in and began taking Will’s vitals.

Paradoxically, the fact that she can recognize most of the machines and tests they do only increases her anxiety levels.

What Will's been through is so outside the realm of ordinary she doesn't understand how things like blood pressure and EEGs can be at all relevant.

She likes Dr. Owens, at least, even if having to come back to Hawkins Lab for these checkups still gives her heart palpitations and triggers memories she tries very hard to keep suppressed.

It's the same for Will, she knows; not so much the building as _why_ he's there that has him even quieter and more subdued than normal.

That first appointment, while long, goes off rather smoothly – as do the second and third, Hopper still disappearing every time they go into the exam room – but by the fourth Will’s more aware of himself, less of the shell-shocked zombie Joyce had taken home from the hospital. He balks at the door, sweating and shaking and he can’t go inside _he won’t he won’t he won’t –_

And Joyce is only seconds away from breaking down in tears with him; she feels so _helpless_ , even more than she normally does. But she knows firsthand that the monsters you can see and touch are the easy ones to deal with compared to the ones lurking in the dark corners of a person’s mind. 

But then Hopper – who keeps meeting them out in the parking lot, and Joyce wants to tell him to stop coming but somehow never seems to manage it – crouches down in front of her shaking son, one hand coming up to grip Will’s shoulder.

It triggers the memory of storming out of the morgue that held Will’s supposed body, that lying _asshole_ following her, and catching a glimpse of Hopper gripping Jonathan’s shoulder the same way.

She can’t hear what the Police Chief says to her son, the pitch of his voice only reaching her ears as a low rumble from underneath his hat, but she can see the panic receding from Will’s face. It’s enough to make her feel less guilty about stepping aside to get herself back under control.

They’re out there probably a good five minutes, Hopper doing most of the talking before Will manages a jerky nod and the three of them go in, and Joyce feels her heart swell with love for her brave little boy.

(And maybe, just possibly, a little bit of gratitude for Hopper as well.)

The Police Chief keeps his hand on Will’s shoulder all the way up to the exam room, and Joyce expects him to stay outside again but this time he walks through the doorway with barely a pause.

He takes up what will become his usual position: leaning against a pillar, hands restlessly turning his hat as he stares sightlessly down at it; a casual pose, if not for the uncomfortable tension that visibly thrums through him as he constantly fidgets. 

(She never makes the connection that it’s a position that keeps him out of the camera’s view.)

When Dr. Owens comes in, Joyce has already mentally replayed the opening conversation, as the doctor starts every appointment the same way:  
“Sir Will, how are you? Mom,” followed by an acknowledging nod to her before he switches his attention back to Will, expression as genial as if he were merely their family doctor here for a typical checkup.

He’d started calling Will ‘Sir Will’ once he’d found out about her son’s interest in Dungeons and Dragons, and Joyce can appreciate his attempts to ease what is so clearly an unwelcome experience. 

But this time there’s a change. Dr. Owens walks in with Will’s file folder under his arm as usual (and Joyce has been surprised to discover the depths of hatred one can develop for innocuous stationery), smiles, and says: 

“Sir Will, how are you? Mom. Glad you could join us this time, Pops.”

And Joyce just…blanks. 

She hadn’t even – had never _considered_ – what it might look like to an outsider (which is what Dr. Owens is, what the Lab staff all are) that Hopper was accompanying them to these appointments. 

Hopper was… an old classmate, a good friend she’d fallen out of touch with, even after his return to Hawkins. Someone she’d only ever exchanged the social niceties with when they’d occasionally bumped into each other around town; at least until Will had gone missing.

And then he’d become a friend who’d believed her when no one else did, who helped her get her boy back, who’d stuck with her – was still sticking with her – through the entire hellish experience, but still just…Hop. 

But by the time her brain reengages enough to explain that, Dr. Owens is already chatting away with Will, who gives her a questioning glance while answering the doctor’s questions.

She can feel Hopper’s stare drilling holes into her shoulder blades, but he stays quiet. He remains so the entire time – aside from a terse “Jim,” upon introductions – even when he’s following her into Dr. Owen’s office when the doctor asks to speak with Will’s parents for just a moment.

It’s the perfect time for Joyce to clarify things…but she doesn’t. And then the next thing she knows they’re all walking back out to their respective vehicles and she has no idea why she hasn’t or what she’s going to do about the misconception. 

Will, her sweet boy, thankfully doesn’t ask any questions about it.

And even though Hopper is not, and has not, ever been anything like _that_ to her boys, she doesn’t correct Dr. Owens the next time either. 

(Will darts a quick glance at her that flicks to Hopper and then back when the Police Chief says nothing as well.) 

She _tries_ to; she really, truly does, but every single time the words seem to get stuck between her tongue and her teeth.

It becomes their elephant in the room, and once she starts dating Bob she knows she should feel guilty about perpetuating the lie –she should be _drowning_ in guilt over it –but she isn’t. 

It’s merely another line of defense, Joyce argues with herself, when she’s lying in her bed unable to sleep at two in the morning. 

There has been a time or two where Hopper’s stayed behind to talk to Dr. Owens after they wrap up talking about Will’s latest results, and she suspects those talks have nothing to do with her son. 

She’d asked, once, but Hopper had brushed it off as “Just business.”

She hadn’t pressed any further, knowing by the set of his jaw that the Police Chief had said all he’s planned to.

If Hopper is someway in…well, she doesn’t want to call it _cahoots_ with the Lab people, but if he has some sort of _professional alliance_ with them she wouldn’t be surprised if it was of the ‘I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine,’ type; which means if they think Will is Hopper’s son, hopefully they’ll be less inclined towards any more behind-the-curtain machinations if the risk is that Hopper will expose them. 

Joyce doesn’t know that for sure, but she suspects she’s right because of how the gossip vine in Hawkins should have been abuzz with all the crazy things that have happened….and it wasn’t.

Oh, she knows there’s still talk about Will and his miraculous return, but that’s all it is; a boy who got lost in the woods for a week, the body of another little boy found and explained as a runaway death, and a hallelujah rescue. The rotting pumpkins were blamed on a chemical leak, and all the other out-of-the-ordinary happenings were neatly explained away.

So if They – They being Dr. Owens, the lab staff, _any_ outsider who’s a part of this conspiracy – think Hopper is Will’s father then maybe – or rather, maybe they won’t – well, if anything were to – 

_Alright._

Joyce throws up her mental hands.

So it’s complete and utter bullshit, _fine_ , but she clings tightly to the thought that it’s better that They think Hopper is Will’s father, because…well, just _because._

And it gets to the point where it’s almost as if – as soon as they enter the building, anyway –Hopper _is_ Will’s father. He’s there for all of the examinations, Dr. Owens discusses results and treatment options with both of them, and Joyce finds herself leaning on Hopper just that little bit more.

It doesn’t sink in exactly _how_ much she leans on him until she sees how close they came to losing him in those god-awful tunnels, and Will is suddenly acting out the main role of The Exorcist. 

And even though Bob is just on _the other side of the wall_ when Dr. Owens is telling her how they suspect it’s a viral infection that’s making Will act so strangely – _bullshit_ , Joyce thinks savagely, even she can tell that much – it’s Hopper’s arm that comes around her, and it’s Hopper that she sags against as she cries.

(But she still goes back to Bob, in the end.)

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 _“I felt as if I were riding a pendulum. Just as I would swing into the abyss of hopelessness, the pendulum would swing back with some small goodness.”_  
_**― Ruta Sepetys, Between Shades of Gray**_


End file.
